Where Are You Coming From?

As Sinek says, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” The key to this enlightening statement is, people who align with what drives you will buy because they value you for who you are. This was a huge breakthrough for me. For the first time, I began to understand why some clients were a delight to work with and others were a nightmare. When I looked closely at each relationship, I discovered that the good ones aligned with me, and the difficult ones did not.

Does that mean we need to fire all of our difficult customers? Of course not. It means we have the opportunity to reframe what we do based on what drives them relative to what drives us. We need to put our why into a perspective they can understand. Look at the list above and you will quickly realize it is not only entirely possible to bridge between each of those drivers, but they are all compatible with each other.
You will also find difficult relationships often occur because the other party is unclear about who they are. Think about all those customers who have struggled with getting their art just right. The famous line, “I don’t know what I want, but that’s not it.” is a perfect example of being lost and frustrated at your expense.

Our world is becoming increasingly complex. Values, institutions, and processes are all being disrupted. We question everything. What worked in the past is increasingly challenged and may no longer be relevant to the conditions today. This leads to confusion and, ultimately, the breakdown of our systems. Chaos follows. Making any kind of sense of the constantly changing world around us requires the use of tools like these to remind us of who we really are and why we do the things we do.

Remember, the why never changes. It’s our responsibility to create new products and services in alignment with who we really are and with what the market wants. The core is constant in our professional and private lives. I invite you to begin your own journey of discovery of who you really are and to put into perspective the changes you’re dealing with as your markets and customers become more demanding. Learn to ask the questions that will identify the clients who align with you and can value what you bring to them.